It’s November 2018 and I’m in Libreville, Gabon’s capital, joined by my good friend and fellow sound recordist Stijn Demeulenaere. Over the following month we will travel over two thousand miles, hike in the rainforest, be charged at by gorillas, swarmed on by bees and other insects, cross rivers on logs and most importantly, we will record so much natural soundscapes that it will take us months or years to go through it all.

I just finished putting together my second vlog, shot last year in Ethiopia while I was recording the African Cloud Forest library. This is part two in the series and content from other locations will follow soon.

I just finished putting together my first proper vlog. This was shot last year in Ethiopia while I was recording the African Cloud Forest library. It’s only part one in a two part series, and content from other locations will follow soon.

My plans for January were to travel and record in the Northern reaches of the Sahara desert, among other interesting places. Unfortunately, due to worrying developments I had to cancel everything and find a last-minute destination for a week-long recording trip. After checking the weather forecast I decided to travel to Romania where plenty of snow was to fall.

I’ve been interested in conservation and environmental causes ever since childhood. Once I started to do field recording I became more involved, reading many books on the subject, supporting local and global initiatives and even taking part in research/surveys as much as my busy schedule allowed.

Earlier this year I was reading a book about rainforest ecosystems and I learned about Cloud Forests. These are specific types of rainforests that generally occur at high altitude and harbor excellent biodiversity. Incidentally the humidity and lack of scorching heat makes these forests the best place for wild coffee to grow. I’m quite fond of coffee and wildlife so this aspect stuck to mind.